In an interview to appear in the March edition of of Esquire magazine, the soldier - referred to as 'The Shooter' - told how when he first set eyes on Bin Laden he was surprised how tall he was.

He told journalist Phil Bronstein: "[bin Laden] looked confused. And way taller than I was expecting. He had a cap on and didn’t appear to be hit.

"I can’t tell you 100 per cent, but he was standing and moving. He was holding [his wife Amal] in front of him. Maybe as a shield, I don’t know. For me, it was a snapshot of a target ID, definitely him.

"This was repetition and muscle memory. That’s him, boom, done.

"I thought in that first instant how skinny he was, how tall and how short his beard was, all at once. He was wearing one of those white hats, but he had, like, an almost shaved head. Like a crew cut.

"I remember all that registering. I was amazed how tall he was, taller than all of us, and it didn’t seem like he would be, because all those guys were always smaller than you think.

"And he’s moving forward. I don’t know if she’s got a vest and she’s being pushed to martyr them both.

"He’s got a gun within reach. He’s a threat. I need to get a head shot so he won’t have a chance to clack himself off [blow himself up].

"In that second, I shot him, two times in the forehead. Bap! Bap! The second time as he’s going down. He crumpled onto the floor in front of his bed and I hit him again, Bap! Same place.

"That time I used my EOTech red-dot holo sight. He was dead. Not moving. His tongue was out. I watched him take his last breaths, just a reflex breath.

"And I remember as I watched him breathe out the last part of air, I thought: Is this the best thing I’ve ever done, or the worst thing I’ve ever done? This is real and that’s him. Holy sh**."

Seconds after the killing the al-Qaeda leader, his wife threw herself at him screaming, so he tied her to the bed with plastic cuffs.

He then noticed that bin Laden's youngest son, aged around three, had seen the shooting.

"He was standing there on the other side of the bed. I didn’t want to hurt him, because I’m not a savage. There was a lot of screaming, he was crying, just in shock.

"I didn’t like that he was scared. He’s a kid, and had nothing to do with this. I picked him up and put him next to his mother. I put some water on his face."

The interview was published after Mr Bronstein spent a year with the special forces soldier, who said his job had led to the breakdown of his marriage.